Tohoku Pacific Earthquake: Report 13 on Medical Activities on the ground - Médecins du Monde Japan

After the O-bon holidays in August, the remaining people staying in evacuation centers moved into temporary housing and other accommodation. All the evacuation centers in Ohtsuchi are now closed. To be honest, it was strange for me to see this happen. I have spent most of my time here visiting the centers and they had formed the basis of people’s day to day lives since the disaster. Of course, there was nothing ordinary about the evacuation centers for the people living there. The centers were very much not day to day. Their closing made me realize that this was the point at which people were taking their first steps back to a normal life. I wonder how many people have left the centers to return to their own homes and been able to get everything back to normal. I don’t have any exact figures, but I don’t expect there are many.